Crimestoppers Locks Up The Bosses

[5th April 2005]

Thursday March 10 2005 saw Crimestoppers put some of the UK's leading bosses behind bars for a night in the new prison in Peterborough.

This fundraising event for Crimestoppers saw senior police officers and leading business people across the UK being sentenced to one night behind bars. In taking part, each of our ‘inmates' pledged to raise at least £2,000 in sponsorship on behalf of the charity.

Our range of inmates for this event included David Westwood, Chief Constable of Humberside Police; Alistair McWhirter, Chief Constable, Suffolk Constabulary; Bill Mackintosh, Senior Director, Royal Bank of Scotland; Julie Spence, Deputy Chief Constable, Cambridgeshire Constabulary; Kevin Wilkins, Assistant Chief Constable, Norfolk Constabulary; Howard Phillips, Operations Director North, McCarthy & Stone; Paul Holroyd, General Manager of I2 Ltd and Mick Leggett, Chief Executive of Cross Keys Homes, Herb Nahapiet, Chief Executive, UKDS Ltd and our own Chief Executive, Michael Laurie.

The evening was a great success, kicking off with a champagne reception for the new inmates and their guests at the prison, followed by a shortened and rather more entertaining version of the standard prisoner reception procedure before inmates were led away to their cells.

Once in their cells, the inmates remained locked up overnight before being served a prisoner's breakfast prior to their release the following morning. Following the event, our participants have expressed that the event brought home the reality of serving a prison sentence. The experience of seeing the cell door banging shut and being locked away for the first time certainly re-enforced the issues raised by the event, as well as highlighting the way in which Crimestoppers can empower everyone in the community to take action against criminals without fear of reprisal.

Thank you to all of our inmates for taking part in the event and making it such a wonderful success for Crimestoppers.

Thank you also to UKDS Ltd who kindly supported the event.